Econo Lodge

We checked in late Saturday afternoon. The front desk clerk was asleep. We had to wake him up. He was not even apologetic. He swiped my credit card and gave us a room key and no further instructions or welcome other than «no smoking in your room» and mumbling something about check-​out time. We had an early AM appointment so we did not really bother with clarifying the check-​out time with this grumpy person.
Our room was located in the back of the property in a run down section of the motel that I later learned from one of the neighbors was rented to «weekly» tenants. Not only did the neighbors in our section keep coming and going in multiple vehicles throughout the night, but they kept stepping out of their rooms onto the snow covered sidewalk to smoke (presumably cigarettes) barefoot and in various states of undress ranging from pajamas to boxers. We finally closed our curtains to watch tv without the constant interference of headlights reflecting into our room onto the tv screen or shadows of people standing outside the rooms.
The room itself was freezing cold when we arrived. We turned on the wall mounted ac/​heat unit and let it run all day and night. After an hour the room was warm enough to take our sweaters off but the bathroom remained cold and freezing the entire stay.
The following morning we took showers in luke warm water and dried off with rough, bleached, brittle, paper-​thin towels. As I showered, my partner went to the nearby Dunkin Donuts to get us some morning coffee. I had just stepped out of the bathroom completely nude to find a young girl standing in my room telling me that her mother told her to «look in their room to see if they were smoking!!» Get this… I am standing there with nothing on in front of a girl young enough to be my granddaughter accusing me of smoking in a motel room! A motel room I might add that was the same remote block inhabited by the weekly residents that openly smoke god only knows what in various states of undress while hanging in front of their rented room!!! What kind of mother gives a kid a room key and sends her to a strangers room? WTF? As I write this, another thought just occurred to me, I wonder what might have went missing from our room had I not stepped out of the bathroom when I did?
My partner and I went to the front desk to check out and saw the big «Free Breakfast» sign perched on the counter – something the clerk the day before failed to mention. My partner asked the same clerk why he did not mention the «free breakfast» to us upon check-​in the afternoon before, and the clerk stood there and lied to us both in front of his coworkers, telling us that he did! I reminded him that we woke him up when we checked-​in and he didn’t say anything to us at all except for mumbling about the check-​out time and the no-​smoking policy (not that I would have eaten waffles made by someone in a motel lobby – but still… hot coffee on a snowy morning would have been nice).
When we requested a copy of the receipt, the manager initially refused. He said we would get a copy of the bill with our next credit card statement. Wrong thing to say to someone who was not born yesterday. My partner requested a copy of our bill and demanded the manager sign the bill saying something to the effect that no additional charges were incurred for these guests over the stated nightly fee. The manager eventually acquiesced when my partner started talking about calling their corporate headquarters to complain about poor business practices.
This is just yet another example of an unregulated franchise disregarding guest guidelines and doing whatever they want, including questionable weekly rentals, trespassing and misrepresentation of services.
The only reason we stayed here is that our favorite Brattleboro motel was full for the weekend. I cannot stress this enough — avoid this place like the plague!!!

Thank Goodness for Econo Lodge, for a single parent this is a clean, safe, economical, with wifi, place to stay. Very friendly service and quick processing. A plus in my book.

Checking in at 10:30pm led us to frightening encounter with the manager in the dark outside led us not to contact him when we discovered that we did not get cell phone reception nor wifi in our room. In the morning we opted to check out a day early since we were not able to receive wifi. The manager tried to troubleshoot a problem we did not have with the wifi, he refused to accept that our issue was different. In asking not to be charged for the second night because of our dissatisfaction he explained it was up to Hotwire to refund us (without further explanation). In talking to Hotwire they explained it was up to him. I called him directly where he then explained that he has a «no refund policy, without exception» — really. That would have been interesting to share while we were there, this leads me to believe he was intentionally dishonest while we were there in person. He again tried to tell me about the problem he thought we had with the wireless, I again assured him that was not our issue — he then denied our problem to be possible — to me, that is nearly accusing someone of lying — what a «conversation». Throughout our conversation he raised his voice a number of times which solidified our frightening experience with him when we checked in at night, he is not a safe man. His end of the conversation lacked basic reasoning skills and an understanding of any shred of customer service. Very few times in my life have I been disappointed in another adult’s ability to have a mature conversation, this was truly shocking. I never asked for a full refund, I was only asking for the night we did not stay.

Good place to crash for the night. A bit far from the city center, but very convenient to the highway. I had very poor cell reception on my AT&T phone, but the free wireless helped.

Overall we had no issues and felt it was a great to deal to stay at this motel. Its about a 15 minute walk to the main strip of downtown Brattleboro, VT. We got a great deal of $ 55 for one night and the room overall was quiet, heated considering it was cold out, free use of internet in their lobby and a very good continental breakfast of cereal, waffles, juice, coffee and such. We requested a non-​smoking room and they indeed came through on that. The room was very clean and checking in and out was simple. The motel is also conveniently located 5 minutes away from a Walgreens, Dunkin Doughnuts, 24 Hour Super Market, Brueggers Bagels, Pizza places, Chinese food, Burger King and other stores. Staying at motels can be a hit or miss but at this point we were fortunate that the Econo Lodge worked out for us.

The only good thing i can say about this hotel is the rooms were HUGE. Other then that, things kinda go funky when the guy you check in with tells you that you’ve been ripped off by going to Travelocity. Sure that may be the truth but come on, i’m from the other side of the nation, how am i to find a decent hotel from the web?
The room had an odor to it, the place didn’t look all that clean, the bathroom didn’t look all that fresh either.